Among Friends

[yock]

Bernie, I am in Indiana and you are right. They are cicadias.   It is clouding up. We are supposed to have isolated thunder storms.  Looks like we might receive one

we went to Red Lobster after church. It was just ok.   Natalie wanted me to take her to the bathroom so off we went.  She thinks it's magic when the paper towels dispense by themselves and the water comes out by holding your hand under it.  When she finished I decided to go too and she proudly announced at the table that Grams had gone too.   While we were In There another woman came out to wash her hands. Nat looked at her and I thought oh oh but she merely said I like your earrings.  Pleased the woman and I let out my breath 

Feddie those fires in your state are horrible.  You could put those bunnies in your cat condo and show those neighbors that they are  definitely calling on you. Did the gate patch fail?    We had a wonderful guest pianist this morning and his very first selection was How Great Thou Are.    Merle's very favorite song.   I think when I make a paragraph I make an error and Q warns me u have illegally entered html code.  Feels like I got my wrist slapped. They do correct it and let me post

[Bird mama]

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@yock

Betty, when I think locusts my mind goes to the Bible, I think prophesy and I get a little nervous (lol).

I watched the local weather at 6 and can tell you I will be walking the floors tonight until it passes.  There is a big red line of storms slowly sinking down through my state.  We had a funnel cloud spotting - my weatherman showed the phone picture from a viewer.  My trees have been bouncing in the wind all day.  They're talking straight line winds and hail and heavens knows what else.  Last time it looked bad, I stayed up until 2 am.  Tonight, I might only have to stay up until midnight or 1 am.  I can't go to sleep until I know I don't have to take the birds in the basement.  Grayson will go where I go, Presto sleeps in a habitat that's closed at night. Poppi, my old man is not caged.  So..... mama has to stay awake in the event I have to chase him down in the dark and run for cover.

My 93 year old neighbor is using my driveway to park her minivan since this past Thursday.  Her driveway is blocked because of the street reconstruction.  I think she went out of town with her kids.  I'm watching my next door neighbor's tree bounce in the wind.  If that tree comes down, there goes Lillian's van (insert scared face here).

[Winifred]

The blocking wood was down and laid up against the other fence in their yard - a good 2 feet from where it was suppose to be - what can I say? They just are nOT paying an attention. Course there are holes in the fence once they get in my yard over where the auto repair place is - those holes have been there for years and years for many reasons. Bottom line is it does NOT matter if there are in any part of my fence as those bunnies should be kept in THEIR yard - then no worries. Geesh.

Another super hot day. Betty, actually it is too hot to put the kitties out in the cat condo - they would suffer out there in the humidity - no I will NOT buy a fan for them. LOL. 100 degrees today PLUS very high humidity. Miserable. Betty, I went to the Red Lobster ONCE. Could NOT stand the smell once I went in - never again. Yep, cannot abide sea food quite frankly. Cannot remember now why I went in - probably because my husband LOVED all seafood AND beer - I cannot abide either. What can I say?

Went to Kohl's today - spent way too much $$ so now will try and figure out how to pay for it. New sheets and pillow cases AND tee shirts for tall - for Davey, Is he extra tall, NO, but he has a very bad habit of wearing his pants below his but-t - infuriates me but have gotten no where with it. Hardly any kid in this town does this but he is from the ghetto in San ewhere they think that is cool!!! Am trying to keep him from being arrested. The school here - high school - will call the sheriff if anyone makes a complaint at the school and there are serious charges leveled at the kids - they learned, but am not sure Davey understands he could be labeled with a super serious tag. Am talking to his Dad again tonight - will see what happens there. Cannot believe school starts on August 12 - way toooooooooooooooooo early. Kids just barely get out and they are right back in. So makes perfect sense doesn't it? He goes back to school and they get a zillion minimum days, a zilllion days off, etc. That is so very stupid. All because the teachers get more $$ by having school in session  so long. Do NOT like it.

I need to check and see what to warm up for dinner  - still way too hot to eat now. Have tons of ham, a bit of mashed taters and no veggies but the go withs will be easy fixes. Hope all had a great day.

With the two SHORT super heavy downpours we had - a week apart, what little weeds we have and what little grass we had got green. Unfortunately in all the bare spots, nothing came up, darn it anyway.

[mousiegirl]

DH and I ate at a Red Lobster once, in an area we were not familiar with, and it was so bad that we laughed all the way through our meal, what we could eat, lol.  It was the end of a long day, we were so tired, and just wanted to eat, so stopped in there, and all I can say is that once was e n o u g h.

[Bird mama]

@yock

Betty, it's been a long time since I've had dinner at a Red Lobster.  I don't do much seafood eating - does battered Gorton's fish sticks during Lent count? (lol).  They used to make really good biscuits and hushpuppies.

[spix]

Morning All, had a bad storm yesterday afternoon & again at nite, thunder, lightning, lots of hail & wind, the City truck just went by picking up tree parts & twigs, shredding them, wow we're really getting some service these days! Did have the pork chops last nite, they were pretty thin so pan fried instead of the grill, noodles, corn, salad. Tonite think ordering pizza is the way to go. Our Red Lobster here is pretty good, but I love seafood so maybe I'm not a good one to comment, do like their biscuits. Have to run out today doing some errands, but at least we have cooled off somewhat, only in the low 80's today, so the a/c is off, mine is a few years old but couldn't believe what a difference it made in the electric bill, much lower so House_Cat I beleieve you'll be happy with yours Winifred hope your weather moderates, try to stay cool. Tomorrow is my day at O'Hare, should be almost back to normal after the storms, otherwise we'll be very busy with unhappy passengers

[Bird mama]

@Winifred

Freddie, as someone who grew up in the 'ghetto', children have no control of where we live.  My maternal and paternal grandmothers lived in the city and my parents refused to move.  All of my aunts and uncles from both sides of the family cleared out after the riots.  I had the misfortune of seeing my mother's side of the family more often than my father's side of the family.  My mother's side - the one's who stole from their employers, whose children received blank diplomas at graduation and who ended up at the altar knocked up - took great pleasure in reminding me and my sister that we lived in the ghetto.  Of course, ghetto had nothing to do with it when they wanted to know if my employer was hiring ;-).  My holier than thou uncles felt like they could talk to me inappropriately because you know, I was ghetto.  Well, until their spouses died and they needed someone to do the readings at Church because their children were too stupid to pronounce anything in the Bible.  (FYI - I declined the requests to read at funerals - hey don't want to ghetto it up right?).

My point is - the word ghetto can hurt when you are a kid. 

Please be patient with Davey - this is new to him and it's an adjustment.

[Bird mama]

Hey Spix, we had some 'weather' move through here last night.  I lucked out and didn't get the severe winds that others in my state experienced.  Mostly rain, lightening and a touch of thunder.  It was 92 yesterday and is supposed to be 82 today with the rest of the week at mid 70's and low 80's - no humidity.  Now that is what summer should feel like in my opinion :-) 

[spix]

Hi back to you Bernie, our weather is predicted to be the same as yours, that's a good Summer for me too, love to open the windows & have fresh air thru out the house. Some years ago we owned a house in Gobles, MI, ever hear of it? near Allegan & Kalamazoo, but there we usually got more snow than here in ChiTown, but loved the people there, it was a totally different way of life than here, I do miss it.

[Bird mama]

Spix, I've heard of Allegan and K'zoo.  Gobles, I'm not so familiar with.

So how is everyone at the Back Fence today?  It's cooler here and sunny and the wildlife outside seems to be loving it.  My goodness, I am getting more birds than usual and they are eating ALOT.  I can tell the sparrow parents have been busy this spring/summer because I have so many first years on the patio.  I also have quite a few new squirrels.  It looks like the black squirrel had three and the chestnut colored squirrel had two.

The other day I had the screen door propped open for Grayson to mingle with other pigeons (under supervision of course).  One of the new black squirrels came up the step and peeked into the house, while keeping all feet on the outside part of the door threshold.

For a minute, I thought it was going to come in and watch TV with me.  Oh boy, Grayson would have been so offended.